ATM
by KagomeGirl92
Summary: In year 3008, the world as we know it has become so far advanced in technology that almost everything in the world is ruled by the newest up to date science. Yuugi Mutou reflects on the events that led into him falling for the android prototype he created


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A little something I got the idea for when surfing in the Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! websites. It appears that when written in the Latin letters, many Japanese actually write Atemu's name Atm. That's where it began. I also think the fact I've been watching _Once Upon A Time…Space _on TV a lot lately. I don't know whether this or something similar to this has already been done, but I wanted to give it my own try.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Kazuki Takahashi and Konami do!

Warnings: Shonen-ai, human loving a robot, hints of past Yuugi x Other people than Atemu/Yami.

Special thanks to LeShea for betaing!

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ATM

Since the first living thing gazed upward through the darkness, Man has seldom been content merely to be born, to endure, and to die. With a curious fervor he has struggled to unlock the mysteries of creation and of the world in which he lives. Sometimes he has won. Sometimes he has lost. And sometimes, in the tumbling torrents of space and time, he has brief glimpses of a world he never even dreams of…

In year 3008, the world as we know it has become so far advanced in technology that almost everything in the world is ruled by the newest up to date science. By now, robots control and operate in the place of humans in the work force. Humans now instead now use their time keeping the world populated and spending time with their families. However there are certain jobs that can't be done by none other humans. Such jobs like the space scientists who study new life on different planets as well as the robotic engineers.

"More tea Master?" a very handsome youth asked, addressing another very finely dressed young man. The master of the household sipped from a small china teacup while viewing the sunset from the white stone balcony.

The servant who had asked the question looked slightly younger than the one he called "Master". The servant and master looked almost identical with the exception of a few details.

For one, the servant was, more built, than his older look-alike who had a milky pale skin. The servant's skin was tan, as if his skin had been kissed by the rays of the magnificent sun itself. They did share the same tri-coloured hair, though. However, the older man had less golden streaks to his hair and the tips were a pinkish violet, whereas the younger man had red tips. Also, the so called "Master" had wide, gentle violet eyes; the younger man's eyes were narrowed and strikingly crimson-coloured. They would've been very beautiful if it hadn't been for the fact that they looked soulless and, well, kind of empty. They were inhuman. How fitting, for he wasn't one.

The older man smiled softly at the younger one before sipping his tea. "No, that's all for now Atemu. You can go back to your duties. Just leave the teapot on the table."

"Yes sir." The youth called Atemu answered; placing the teapot on the delicate table that was standing next to the chair the older youth had been sitting on. He bowed respectfully and left the balcony.

The older man, who went by the name Yuugi, looked sorrowfully after the other 'man'. A part of him wanted Atemu to stay there with him, but the other part of him knew he couldn't do that to himself. It just hurt too much.

ATM – Artificial Technical Mortal– or Atemu as Yuugi liked to call him – it, _it_ – was the newest and latest form of automaton that had been in the middle of development for years. The idea of this new "synthetic human" was that the androids would be as close to humans as possible so that even small children would feel comfortable around them. That's what Yuugi had been told the reason was at least. Personally he thought that humans just wanted to know more, find out what humanity actually was. But even with the latest knowledge and technology, no one could even begin to understand what defines us as humans. Robots, androids, cyborgs still remained just that, machines. They had no feelings, no emotions, as Yuugi himself knew so well. They were wonderful servants and companions, even pleasant to behold now, but never like real humans.

Yuugi had been very deeply involved with the creation of ATM. He worked for a large corporation that produced these synthetic humans, Kaiba Corp Robotics Lab. His boss and the husband of one of his best friends Jounouchi Katsuya, was Kaiba Seto, the world-famous genius child who had inherited Kaiba Corp. at the age of only 16. Since Kaiba Seto became the current chief executive officer of Kaiba Corp, he had improved the value for company shareholders and increased profit margins across the board. And Yuugi was one of his most esteemed robotics engineers.

Technology had always fascinated Yuugi. Ever since he was a child he had been the master of the computers and helped his friends figure them out when they were having problems.

However, the robots he had known while he was growing up had somewhat frightened him. They had no face and they looked like the pile of steel that they were. So, years later, when he had heard that his boss was setting up a new project where Kaiba Corp Robotics was to create synthetic humans with artificial intelligence that looked and acted just like humans, he had demanded to be involved with it. After some begging and even asking for help from Jou, he had managed to secure a position on a team of 20 engineers.

Yuugi's role in the project had been rather simple, but still very important. He was supposed to design the looks and the characteristics for the upcoming android prototype. The only demands he had been given were that the robot had to be pleasant for the eye to behold and shouldn't have flaws in nature the way humans did.

Yuugi had spent many nights in front of his desk designing the facial features of the new androids, trying to make it just perfect. In the end the humanly narcissistic aspect of himself had kicked in and he had based the robot on himself, but had removed all the parts he had hated about both his looks and his personality.

So, ATM had ended up taller, more built, more confident and all in all better version of himself. Yuugi didn't really have any idea why the skin colour and the eye-colour had ended up the way they had. He just had to guess he found the dark skin attractive. His first partner had been from Egypt, Africa after all. He guessed Mahado must've been in his thoughts when he'd been designing. Even after all these years, thinking about him made Yuugi feel guilty inside. He himself had ended their three-year relationship that had begun when Yuugi had been studying what the robots were like in other countries when Yuugi had realised he was in love with Malik, the first friend he had made in Egypt and Mahado's cousin. He and Malik had then had a heated relationship that had lasted for a year. They had broken up as friends and still kept in contact. Malik was now married with a man named Marik, and was so happy that Yuugi almost felt like believing that fairytales did come true.

Yeah, his first two partners probably explained the skin-colour of ATM. About the eyes, Yuugi had no idea. It had just felt right, it still did. No normal eye-colour had felt fitting when he had tried them on the ATM designing. And truly, the colour matched the android.

When Yuugi had then showed his designs to Kaiba, he had been kind of nervous. His anxiety had even caused him to loose sleep for many nights. He worried Kaiba wouldn't be satisfied. But he told himself he had done his best and no one could demand any more of him. He went into Kaiba's office and showed the designs.

After taking a look at them, Kaiba had smirked slightly and said: "How narcissistic of you, Mutou." And that was it. Kaiba wasn't one to give compliments, but the fact that his designs had been used was proof enough that Kaiba had liked them.

Despite his biggest part in the project being over, Yuugi still managed the other engineers. He had to keep the eye on the people who would build and create ATM and make sure that they followed his instructions.

It was then that he'd noticed his strange obsession with this particular project. He worked really hard and long, wanting everything to be _just_ perfect. There was nothing odd in _that,_ yet, but before long Yuugi found himself staying behind after the others had left the laboratory where the constructing of ATM was to be done.

He would just sit there staring at the robot that already looked like a human but didn't yet talk or do anything. He didn't yet question himself for this; he assumed it to be normal. He was pretty dedicated to his job nowadays after all. He hadn't had much of a relationship with anyone after Malik and he had no family alive anymore, so…the only thing he had besides his job were his friends. But when he looked at the ATM prototype he forgot all about them and just kept staring.

Maybe he shouldn't have forgotten about his friends since it was one of them who had first noticed his growing obsession. One day he had met up with Ryou, his friend since childhood who now lived in Kyoto whereas Yuugi had remained in the city they'd grown up in, Domino. They had decided to have lunch together to catch up.

Ryou had noticed Yuugi was kind of zoning out and talking about the newest project he was involved in all the time. Ryou had immediately been suspicious, but of course since he had no idea the object of Yuugi's obsession was the android he was working on, he had asked if Yuugi had met someone during the new project who he was interested in. Yuugi had blushed and hotly denied it, quickly directing the subject towards Ryou's own love life, which had led into finding out exactly why Ryou was in town anyway. He was getting married and had personally wanted to ask Yuugi to be his best man. Although Yuugi was thrilled by the news for his oldest friend, Ryou's earlier words hung heavy deep inside his mind:

**_"_**_**You've met someone haven't you? Someone you care for?" **_

To ignore Ryou's words Yuugi buried himself even deeper to his work while helping Ryou to plan out his wedding. Ryou's words also put the idea of dating in his mind again and he tried to seek out for a new partner at bars and nightclubs. He had even asked his friends to set him up a few dates. Nothing serious had developed out of any of them; however, as Yuugi himself broke the relationships off after a couple of weeks at the most. He hadn't understood why, since most of them had been perfectly nice and gentleman-like, but…he had just always felt like something was missing. Why wasn't their skin dark? Why wasn't their hair tri-coloured? Why weren't their eyes so wonderfully deep red?

It was then that it hit him. He was falling in love with something he had created. With Artificial Technical Mortal.

Of course if had been a terribly horrible shock at first. He had been so anxious, so scared. He wanted to share his feelings with someone but who could it be? Who was kind enough to understand? To him, it was simple, how could you not fall in love with something so perfect? But would anyone else understand that he was falling in love with nothing more than a talking mannequin?

In the end Yuugi hadn't needed to confide in anyone. Well, not really. His boss had noticed his strange behaviour towards the new android prototype and had mentioned it to his husband who had immediately become worried.

Jou had called Yuugi for a lunch and they had talked about the deal. Yuugi couldn't quite remember how he had ended up confessing about his hopeless love to Jou, but he did remember Jou's words afterwards very clearly: _"You just can't fall in love with normal people, can you?" _he had said with a deep sigh.

Yuugi had to agree with that. Mahado and Malik hadn't exactly been the most ordinary people you could meet in your life, and now this.

Despite his words, Jou was supportive towards Yuugi in all this. He had allowed Yuugi to talk about the whole thing and when he had noticed how depressed Yuugi started to get when the project was nearly finished and he knew he would soon lose ATM, Jou had somehow convinced Kaiba to give the first prototype of the robot to him.

So here he was currently. ATM served as a sort of a servant in Yuugi's big house, ready to fulfil every wish his master could make up in his 25-year-old mind...except the greatest one. ATM was still just a machine after all, it had no emotions. It couldn't feel the same about Yuugi because it couldn't feel at all. It hurt, but Yuugi was still happy ATM was here with him. Sometimes he even thought about telling the robot how he felt. Uneasiness was an emotion as well after all, so it wouldn't be awkward for the robot, but in the end he always decided not to. Maybe someday in the future Yuugi would meet someone who would completely steal his heart and make him forget all about Atemu, but that was in the future. And Yuugi knew that while he would age and grow old, ATM would forever remain just as handsome, just as young-looking as he had been the day he was created. He just couldn't do that to himself.

"Master, it is getting cold and late. Why don't you come inside? I already ran you a nice hot bath." Yuugi heard Atemu's beautiful deep voice from behind him.

"I will. Thank you Atemu." Yuugi said, standing up. As he looked at Atemu's beautiful face, he knew that there would be a day when ATM wasn't the most advanced, wasn't the newest synthetic human. Humans wouldn't stop making even more advanced androids; there would eventually be robots much more advanced ATM ever could be…

"Master? Is something wrong? You look kind of sad."

Yuugi smiled softly at the robot, shaking his head. "It's nothing Atemu. Don't worry about it."

But despite that, Yuugi knew that for him, Atemu would always be the best robot of all.

THE END

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Atemu looks younger than Yuugi because it's been a few years since his creation when Yuugi based him off his own age.


End file.
